title: Researching lived experience in health care: significance for care ethics.
abstract: The aim of this article is to demonstrate the usefulness of qualitative research for studying the ethics of care, bringing to light the lived experience of health care recipients, together with the importance of methods that allow reconstruction of the processes underlying this lived experience. Lived experiences of families being approached for organ donation, parents facing the imminent death of their child and patients being treated using stem cell transplantation are used to illustrate how ethical principles are differentiated, modified or contradicted by the narrative context of persons concerned. The integration of empirical data into ethics will help caregivers in their ethical decision making and may enrich care ethics as a narrative and interpretative field.
authors.affiliation: Centre of Health Services and Nursing Research, Faculty of Medicine, Catholic University of Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 35 blok, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. bernadette.dierckxdecasterle@med.kuleuven.be
authors.forename: Bernadette
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dierckx de Casterlé
authors.forename: Sofie T L
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Verhaeghe
authors.forename: Marijke C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Kars
authors.forename: Annemarie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coolbrandt
authors.forename: Marleen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Maaike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stubbe
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Deweirdt
authors.forename: Jeroen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vincke
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grypdonck
mesh_terms: D004645:Empathy / Q000941:ethics; D028663:Ethical Theory; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D006801:Humans; D028681:Moral Obligations; D009014:Morals; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000941:ethics*; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing; D028662:Principle-Based Ethics